The legislative session is less than a month away. And the push for the Outdoor School for All bill will begin again.

Senator Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, toured Wolf Ridge Environmental Education Center on Wednesday. He’s one of the authors, and added it’s a very bi-partisan effort. Other lawmakers like Republicans Roger Skraba and Justin Eichorn are also supporters.

The bill would fund a three-day, two-night immersive experience for all 4th-8th graders in Minnesota. It would be a grant program run by the DNR.

Pete Smerud, the Executive Director at Wolf Ridge, helped introduce the legislation last session. “We are thrilled that people are rallying around this idea. We want to change the trend of children spending more time indoors.”

He told us that Oregon and Washington have already passed similar legislation.

On Wednesday, we met up with classes here from Chisago Lakes.

There are five environmental learning centers in Minnesota.

Wolf Ridge is seeing good momentum after COVID created disruptions. They still have opening for this school year, and have summer programs and family programming as well.

For more info: https://wolf-ridge.org/